Holiday Tips that Won’t Break the Bank or Your Budget!

The holidays themselves can be in a nutshell… Exhausting. All the planning and preparation involved takes time and effort to make things just right. From the right decor down to the menu takes hours if not days to plan. If there was a right formula to make things easier on ourselves, it hasn’t been found. This is especially true when it comes to holiday spending and our budget.

The one thing that can make our lives easier is how and what we spend our money on. With Thanksgiving, Christmas parties, and New Year’s Eve right around the corner, we can make things easier on ourselves and our pocketbooks by following easy tips. 

15 Money-Saving Tips for Your Budget

Here is a list of fifteen tips to follow that may help with holiday shopping and less stress:

1. Try not to spend more than what you make in a year.
2. Have everyone in your family compile a want and/or wishlist of their top five items.
3. Think of gift-giving as a way to express love and gratitude instead of just another thing to do on your to-do list.
4. Pick places that offer discounts or specials around the holiday season. Your wallet and budget will thank you.
5. Search for inexpensive places to look for stocking stuffers and holiday decor. These may include Dollar Store, Dollar Tree, or Dollarama. The Bomb Bar also sells affordable bath bombs. This will prevent you from going into debt.
6. Predetermine your spending limit for each person on your list. Calculate the total so you know how much your expenses are.
7. Look for items marked “buy one, get one free” or “buy one, buy another half off”. Bath and Body Works frequently have these deals as do other stores.
8. Most places have a clearance section where you can find good quality items.
9. If you wait until the last part of the year to do your shopping, like me, you will find places like Best Buy and other big box stores that are the best places around the country for holiday sales.
10.  On the other end of the spectrum, when you are looking for clearance items Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. are good places to poke around to find things.
11. Something else to consider is trying to start shopping before October/November. You can start picking things up a little bit at a time throughout the year while decreasing your stress level. You have time to shop for deals to control your spending.
12. Online shopping has become a big thing over the years. Places like Wayfair, Amazon, and outlet stores can save you some extra money, too.
13. Next year you can open up a holiday or Christmas account at the beginning of the year and put in a little bit of money each month out of your paycheck for Christmas shopping. Plus, you can accrue interest on your savings. Most credit unions have a better or higher interest rate than a regular bank.
14. Throughout the year, keep your eyes open for sales around certain holidays like Canada Day, Labor Day, Black Friday, and the day after Christmas. These are great ways to generate savings.
15.  And last but not least, put together a separate holiday budget that coordinates with your monthly budget so you can get an idea of how much you have to spend and what you can spend.

Final Thoughts

With the holidays around the corner, life becomes more hectic. Whether we want it to or not, all the things we look forward to like spending time with family/friends, baking, wrapping gifts, attending Christmas parties/Christmas events for the kids, plus church events take a lot of our time and energy.

Life is already busy enough. Each year it seems to get busier and crazier. We should remember that the holidays are a way to slow down and enjoy what we have. It is a time to enjoy our time with our friends and family. When everything is said and done, those around us won’t remember what we gave them. Yet, the time we took to spend with them is considered priceless. Our memories will outlast any gifts that we received, and we will remember who we spent the holidays with.